arXiv subjects

Zengqiang Tan

Publications and source records attributed to Zengqiang Tan.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Benchmark Computation of Morphological Complexity in the Functionalized Cahn-Hilliard Gradient Flow

Reductions of the self-consistent mean field theory model of amphiphilic molecules in solvent can lead to a singular family of functionalized Cahn-Hilliard energies. We modify these energies, mollifying the singularities to stabilize the computation of the gradient flows and develop a series of benchmark problems that emulate the "morphological complexity" observed in experiments. These benchmarks investigate the delicate balance between the rate of absorption of amphiphilic material onto an interface and a least energy mechanism to disperse the arriving mass. The result is a trichotomy of responses in which two-dimensional interfaces either lengthen by a regularized motion against curvature, undergo pearling bifurcations, or split directly into networks of interfaces. We evaluate a number of schemes that use second order BDF2-type time stepping coupled with Fourier pseudo-spectral spatial discretization. The BDF2-type schemes are either based on a fully implicit time discretization with a PSD nonlinear solver, or upon IMEX, SAV, ETD approaches. All schemes use a fixed local truncation error target with adaptive time-stepping to achieve the error target. Each scheme requires proper "preconditioning" to achieve robust performance that can enhance efficiency by several orders of magnitude.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2023

Parameterized Density Functional Models for Block Copolymer Melts

The derivation of density functional energies from the random phase approximation of self-consistent mean field theory is generalized and applied to a binary blend of diblock copolymers and homopolymers. A nonlocal transformation is incorporated into the density functional model prior to the strong segregation extrapolation step employed by Uneyama and Doi. The transformation affords a systematic parameterization of the free energy that preserves key structural features such as scattering structure factor. A simple choice of transformation is shown to incorporate the Tuebner and Strey microemulsion structure factor and provide a reduction to the microemulsion free energy. Without adjustable parameters, the associated phase diagrams are compared to experimental and self consistent mean field based results. A gradient descent of the free energy recovers dependence of end-state morphology on initial configurations, and identifies coexisting microstructures and transitions to two-phase behavior. Small angle x-ray data is simulated and used in classification of microphase morphology.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2023

A general class of linear unconditionally energy stable schemes for the gradient flows, II

This paper continues to study linear and unconditionally modified-energy stable (abbreviated as SAV-GL) schemes for the gradient flows. The schemes are built on the SAV technique and the general linear time discretizations (GLTD) as well as the extrapolation for the nonlinear term. Different from [44], the GLTDs with three parameters discussed here are not necessarily algebraically stable. Some algebraic identities are derived by using the method of undetermined coefficients and further used to establish the modified-energy inequalities for the unconditional modified-energy stability of the semi-discrete-in-time SAV-GL schemes. It is worth emphasizing that those algebraic identities or energy inequalities are not necessarily unique for some choices of three parameters in the GLTDs. Numerical experiments on the Allen-Cahn, the Cahn-Hilliard and the phase field crystal models with the periodic boundary conditions are conducted to validate the unconditional modified-energy stability of the SAV-GL schemes, where the Fourier pseudo-spectral method is employed in space with the zero-padding to eliminate the aliasing error and the time stepsizes for ensuring the original-energy decay are estimated by using the stability regions of our SAV-GL schemes for the test equation. The resulting time stepsize constraints for the SAV-GL schemes are almost consistent with the numerical results on the above gradient flow models.

math.NA↗

arXiv2022

A general class of linear unconditionally energy stable schemes for the gradient flows

This paper studies a class of linear unconditionally energy stable schemes for the gradient flows. Such schemes are built on the SAV technique and the general linear time discretization (GLTD) as well as the linearization based on the extrapolation for the nonlinear term, and may be arbitrarily high-order accurate and very general, containing many existing SAV schemes and new SAV schemes. It is shown that the semi-discrete-in-time schemes are unconditionally energy stable when the GLTD is algebraically stable, and are convergent with the order of $\min\{\hat{q},ν\}$ under the diagonal stability and some suitable regularity and accurate starting values, where $\hat{q}$ is the generalized stage order of the GLTD and $ν$ denotes the number of the extrapolation points in time. The energy stability results can be easily extended to the fully discrete schemes, for example, if the Fourier spectral method is employed in space when the periodic boundary conditions are specified. Some numerical experiments on the Allen-Cahn, Cahn-Hilliard, and phase field crystal models are conducted to validate those theories as well as the effectiveness, the energy stability and the accuracy of our schemes.

math.NA↗